NCIMS

The U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS) is a division of the U.S. Public Department of Health and Human Services that in conjunction with FDA has broad authority to oversee the health and safety of food, including milk and milk products. To assist states and municipalities with initiating and maintaining effective programs for the prevention of milk-borne disease, the USPHS and FDA developed a model regulation known today as the Grade "A" Pasteurized Milk Ordinance (PMO). This document incorporates the provisions governing the processing, packaging and sale of Grade "A" milk and milk products, including yogurt, fermented milk products, whey, whey products and condensed and dry milk products.

The PMO is the basic standard used in the voluntary Cooperative State-USPHS Program for the Conference of Interstate Milk Shipments, a program participated in by all 50 states, the District of Columbia and U.S. Trust Territories. The National Conference on Interstate Milk Shipments (NCIMS), in accordance with a "Memorandum of Understanding" with the FDA, recommends changes and modifications to the Grade "A" PMO at its biennial conferences.

Conference members represent the many facets of the dairy industry, including the dairy farmer, processing plant personnel, people who inspect dairy farm operations and/or the processing plants, people who make and/or enforce the laws concerning the inspections, academic researchers and advisers and consumers of dairy products.